#9 Imitators of God

series: Love Incorruptible

title: #9 Imitators of God

date: June 25, 2017

teacher: Jacob Bender

scriptures: Ephesians 5:1-14, Genesis 6:5, Genesis 1-3, Genesis 4:6-7, 

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One thing Drew always says, and he says it about the most simple things, (it's hilarious) is he says: “This changes everything.” He said it on Thursday, I told him at Kids Club “we have a slip and slide today” and he said: “This changes everything.” 

That is exactly the way that we should look at the gospel. This truly is the one thing, that changes everything. 

and the thing that it should produce in you, probably more than anything else: is Thanksgiving. It is the word “eucharisteō” (you-har-estay-o) - bundled into this Greek word are the Greek words charis and chara which means “grace” and “joy” - when you understand how every finite detail of your life all the way down to your salvation is grace, it produces unspeakable joy, which equates to thankfulness. 

 and when that Thanksgiving is genuine,  the behavior side of things begins to happen automatically. 

Not because you aren’t trying to do the right thing… part of growing up in Christ means learning how to live your life with INTENTION… but the difference between the old and the new self is: the old self WANTS to give way to the flesh… the new self WANTS to resist it. 

#8 Thou Shall Covet

Series: Realities

Title: Thou Shall Covet

Teacher: Jacob Bender

Date: November 8, 2015

scriptures: Exodus 20:1-17, Psalm 19:10, Psalm 68:16, Proverbs 5:18, Philippians 4:11-14, Romans 7, Hebrews 12:2

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In English, the word covet, is a bad word. In English it means “a yearning to possess or have something.”

I have heard it put this way, it is an inward grasping for something… something that is not yours... It means you don’t have something, and you yearn for it. Maybe we think we are nothing without it. We hear that word, and right away we default to the Ten Commandments. Right away, we think, this is a bad word. This is something that we must not do. Ever. Under any circumstances. I think that the word we typically associate to it is the word jealousy. Or the word envy… and where the command as a whole may be getting at that, those things are not the same as coveting, in the way it was written on the tablets. Not at all.

The Hebrew word written on the tablet that we translate as “covet” is the word “chamad” (huh-mad). And “chamad” (huh-mad) is a good thing. Its a beautiful word that demonstrates a satisfaction with what God gave you. The word “chamad” (huh-mad) means “Delight.” or “To take pleasure in.”

So when you say that you are coveting something, if you are actually quoting the tenth commandment, you are saying that you “Take delight in that thing.”

I covet my wife. I absolutely covet my wife. I take delight in her. In fact, as the days go by I hope and pray that my delight for her only grows and grows.

I covet my children.

Honestly, you should covet (chamad) your friends. Your friends carry a lot of weight. They are very valuable. You should delight in the fact that you have them. You should delight in your relationships. They are gifts.

To say you chamad something does NOT mean you are jealous of it, it means that you delight IN IT.

What you should not do, is covet your friends house.

What you should not do, is covet what your friends have.

God has given you specific things in this life that are tailor made just for you.

For your life.

For your family.

and to not delight in those things would be a slap in the face to the God who gave them to you.

You see, the problem lies in when you covet what is not yours. The command does not say Thou shall not covet.

Thou shall covet.

Thou shall certainly covet.

But thou shall never, ever covet what belongs to someone else.

RESOURCE NOTE: the website referenced today to help you with your studies is www.blueletterbible.com

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